Merck & Co. is handing over $200 million to China’s Hengrui Pharma for a phase 2-stage lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) inhibitor.
In return for the ex-China rights to the drug, dubbed HRS-5346, Merck has also agreed to pay out up to $1.77 billion in milestone fees on top of tiered royalties should the therapy make it to market.
Elevated levels of Lp(a) affect around 1.4 billion people worldwide, according to Merck’s March 25 release. This is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, as Lp(a) can accumulate in blood vessel walls, forming atherosclerotic plaques similar to LDL cholesterol.
Eli Lilly has its own Lp(a) inhibitor in the clinic in the form of muvalaplin, which was shown to successfully reduce levels of the lipoprotein over 12 weeks in a phase 2 study last November. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca paid CSPC Pharmaceutical Group $100 million last year for a preclinical Lp(a) disrupter.
“Elevated blood concentrations of Lp(a) provides a well-documented risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, affecting as many as one in five adults globally,” Merck Research Laboratories President Dean Li, M.D., Ph.D., said in this morning’s release. “HRS-5346, an investigational oral small molecule inhibitor of Lp(a) formation, is an important addition that expands and complements our cardio-metabolic pipeline.”
“We are pleased to partner with Merck, a global leader in cardiovascular care,” Hengrui Chief Strategy Officer Frank Jiang, Ph.D., said in the same release.
“We believe Merck’s clinical expertise and global scale will help accelerate the development of HRS-5346 and potentially provide more patients with an additional option to reduce their risk of atherosclerosis.”
Hengrui and its partner Elevar Therapeutics suffered a setback last week when the FDA once again rejected the approval application for their PD-1 inhibitor camrelizumab in combination with the VEGFR inhibitor rivoceranib for the first-line treatment of liver cancer.
But recent months had brought better news, including Ideaya Biosciences paying $75 million to license an antibody-drug conjugate, as well as a promising weight loss readout for a GLP-1/GIP receptor dual agonist that Hengrui is developing with Kailera Therapeutics.